Ophone: New phone sends smells to communicate

Developed by Parisian research facility Le Laboratoire, the oPhone hopes to make olfactory communication as normal as sending a text via the oChip, a tiny cartridge containing olfactive information to produce hundreds of odour signals.

Developed by Parisian research facility Le Laboratoire, the oPhone hopes to make olfactory communication as normal as sending a text via the oChip, a tiny cartridge containing olfactive information to produce hundreds of odour signals.

After installing the chip into your iPhone, a Bluetooth-connected app called oTracks enables you to send your friend with an oPhone a smell of your choice at the push of a button.

The most recent version of the oPhone was unveiled at the WIRED UK conference, featuring four cylindrical oPhones which can be fitted with up to eight chips.

Creator David Edwards said the multiple chips creates the potential for “odour symphony,” or the ability to craft a multi-odiferous message with actual context.

He said: “These are pretty subtle odor signals that allow me to create sentences, paragraphs and essays, if you will, of odor messages".

The complete oPhone will be released later this year, and will consist of two devices. Edwards said two devices are necessary in order to create multi-layers of smell.

“You can have these great coffees on one side and breads on the other side,” he explains. “There will be some oTracks that use two oPhones and some that use one.”